Food addiction usually has some pretty deep roots. Here are five types of emotional trauma that contribute to creating a food addiction:

1. Shame. Shame is usually at the heart of a food addiction. Shame fans the flames of a food addiction like nothing else can. It makes you feel responsible for things you are not or were not responsible for, and that makes you feel helpless and not in control.

2. Parental Disapproval. Children want so much to please their parents. Children love unconditionally until they are taught differently. When children have to constantly guess at how to win their parents’ approval, they lose heart. They internalize the experience and embrace it as a failure on their part.

3. Perfectionism. Even though no one is perfect, there are those who find anything less than perfection unacceptable. If we are perfect, everything will be okay. Life changes. Things don’t stay as they are. Perfect moments change. It’s not your fault. It’s just life being life. You can’t control everything.

4. No Boundaries. Boundaries are like bridges with sides low enough to see over but high enough to keep you from toppling over if you get too close to the edge. Food addicts live on the edge. If you don’t have boundaries, for whatever reason, you will not feel safe. When food addicts do not feel safe, they eat until they do feel safe.

5. Revictimization. When a person has been victimized, there is a deep seated shame that accompanies the experience. Shame cannot be driven out. It has to be released. Repeatedly reliving the scenario, exploring possible different outcomes is futile. The event has passed. It must be faced, named, and let go of.

Food addictions don’t just happen. They are a response to emotional trauma that is still embraced and hidden away.

Food addicts stuff down their feelings with food. Eating is one thing we can control……………..until we can’t.

As long as there are feelings attached to an experience, positive or negative, it will continue to energize the food addiction.

When the experience becomes just an experience with no emotions attached to it, the food addiction associated with it will wither away.

All healing takes place in the present, not in the past and not in the future. We cannot control those moments, but we can be in control each moment as it is happening.

Every moment without judgment is a step toward freedom from your food addiction. Emotional eating may still occur but it need not be a threat to your well-being and sanity.

You don’t owe anyone an explanation as to why you eat or overeat. You will have no need to stuff down tired, old, hopeless feelings once you give them a name. It’s only shame till it has a name.

You can choose what you want to do, including how you want to eat.  Just like with anything else, the more information you have, the more choices you have and the more wisely you can choose.